"The trashing of Russia’s most valuable economic asset adds to Putin’s growing list of major policy disasters. By attacking Ukraine, he has alienated the Ukrainian people for generations to come. By saber rattling beyond the borders of Ukraine, he has rejuvenated NATO and given it new purpose. Putin has succeeded in pushing traditional sympathizers in the European community, such as Germany’s foreign minister; they’ve decided that the danger he poses trumps their business interests. Instead of raising Russia’s prestige and national pride, he has turned the country into a pariah state with a tottering economy and declining living standards."

When he joined the separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, Russian businessman Bondo Dorovskikh thought he would be fighting hordes of fascists bent on victimizing the local population.

The reality on the ground turned out to be quite different.

Instead of defending eastern Ukraine, Dorovskikh says he found himself stranded in the town of Alchevsk, where pro-Russian rebels controlling the area spent their days looting and drinking.

"In the morning the commander would get up and line up the insurgents for the roll-call, and in the evening there were another roll-call," he told RFE/RL. "The rest of the time the militants roamed around Alchevsk, pillaging, stealing scrap metal, removing metal gates and selling them to buy alcohol and cigarettes. Some of them would get drunk and fire at each other."

We have another case of history repeating itself in Russia today. Genocidal Russian leader Josef Stalin at first used the May 9th Victory Day celebrations of the defeat of Nazi Germany to create solidarity and patriotism, but after two years he decided the celebrations had served their purpose so he cancelled them. Current Russian president Vladimir Putin seems to be taking a page from his historical mentor Stalin as he is using Victory Day to whip up nationalist fervor as he attempts to rewrite history and paint a false picture that Russia is still fighting fascism, but this time it’s Europe and the U.S. who are out to subjugate Mother Russia.

Western leaders not attending Russia’s 70th anniversary Victory Day celebrations

U.S., other Western leaders snub Russia's Victory Day parade

A decade ago, when Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated the 60th anniversary of defeating the Nazis in World War II, leaders of the United States, France and Germany attended the victory parade in Red Square.

As Putin prepares to mark the 70th anniversary, President Obama and other Western leaders are snubbing the event because of Russia's incursion into eastern Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea last year

In a startling new interview, a 3-star general and former head of Communist Romania’s secret police who defected to the United States in 1978, claims that the Theology of Liberation was the creation of the KGB, who exported it to Latin America as a way of introducing Marxism into the continent.

"Reggie Yates is clearly fearless. The black British reporter traveled to Russia for the BBC to understand the recent rise of fascism. In addition to discovering a mini Comic-Con glorifying Putin, he was also harassed for being black at a nationalist march founded by the president and was calmly informed in one interview that the mixing of races is impure and leads to mutations. (Yates is mixed race.) The charming and buoyant reporter at first smiles through the absurdity, but the bigotry gets to be too much for him. His emotions begin to show on his face. Twice we see Yates abruptly end an interview and rush for the exit.

Xenophobia has been an upward trend in Russia even before recent tensions with the West. Yates gives us a stomach-turning glimpse of a montage of YouTube videos celebrating vicious attacks on immigrants, including a man sitting on a bench who is suddenly kicked in the face. He also interviews an immigrant who was randomly stabbed on the street only to have the doctor refuse to treat him because he was an immigrant."

"This is a way to pressure us and destroy us," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

A surge in state-sanctioned patriotism in Russia has been paired with an official effort to downplay any unsavory passages of Russia's recent past. Positive attitudes toward the Soviet Union's former repressive communist regime, and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in particular, have increased under President Vladimir Putin's rule.

Historians say Soviet authorities sent about 15 million people to forced-labor camps, known as Gulags, between the 1930s and the 1950s.

Police in Britain thought Alexander Perepilichnyy, a whistleblower who fled Russia in fear of the Kremlin, had died of natural causes. Shock toxicology tests now reveal traces of an extremely rare poison.

Perepilichnyy was said to be one of the most crucial witnesses in a $200 million fraud case against Russian officials, police officers and the Russian mafia. American executive Bill Browder, head of the investment firm Hermitage Capital, employed lawyer Sergei Magnitsky to investigate how the Russian officials had targeted his company. Magnitsky, 37, was arrested in Russia and subsequently died in police custody.

government critics, researchers and advocates point to Russia's underdeveloped health care system, which they say lacks a comprehensive approach to caring for victims in advanced stages of the disease.

They also blame bureaucracy for preventing patients and their relatives from getting the painkillers they need to cope. A local investigative report recently detailed that exhausting process, which includes a series of tedious medical visits to several different locations.

Russians wounded and captured in Ukraine send messages to family back home as dispute brews

The men say they are Russian soldiers who were captured and wounded while on active duty in the rebellious east, Ukrainian authorities say they are definitive proof that Russia is at war in Ukraine, and Moscow hotly denies the claims.

Representatives of Amnesty International and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has shepherded a shaky cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, visited the men Tuesday and found them apparently in reasonable condition.

"I got professional medical aid, surgery. To my relatives, I want to say everything is fine with me, I'm alive and well," said one, who identified himself as Yevgeny Yerofeyev, a captain in the Russian army.

"I'm missing my family and relatives so much," the other, Sgt. Alexander Alexandrov, told reporters who accompanied the international representatives.

Chechnya's Leader Kadyrov Urges Men To Lock Up Their Wives, Ban Women From WhatsApp

Russia's child rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov provoked outrage last week by supporting the right of older men to marry teenage brides, telling a local radio station that some women were "shriveled" by the age of 27.

"To add to the misery, Russia has lost two spacecraft in the last month. A crewless cargo space ship burned up in the Earth's atmosphere after a communication failure, and a Proton-M carrier rocket carrying a Mexican satellite crashed in Siberia.

"Vadim Prokhorov, a lawyer for RPR-Parnas, was quoted by the Russian newspaper Kommersant as saying on that doctors initially believed he may have been poisoned, though no formal diagnosis had been announced."

Russia Using Mobile Crematoriums To Incinerate Dead Troops And Hide Involvement In Ukraine, Say U.S. Lawmakers

"The Russians are trying to hide their casualties by taking mobile crematoriums with them," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry told Bloomberg. "They are trying to hide not only from the world but from the Russian people their involvement."

MOSCOW—
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared all deaths of Russian soldiers during special operations to be classified as a state secret, a move that comes as Moscow stands accused of sending soldiers to fight in eastern Ukraine.

A
Washington-based think tank on international affairs has released a scathing report on Russia's "direct military intervention" in eastern Ukraine, concluding that President Vladimir Putin has led his country into war and has lied about it.

The report by the Atlantic Council also charges that Putin is using the decrease in hostilities that has followed a February cease-fire deal to reinforce Russian-backed rebels with troops and weaponry in order "to prepare for the next stage of fighting."

At the same time, the Atlantic Council researchers say "the Kremlin is building its case that forces engaged in any future outbreaks of fighting are indigenous, legitimate Ukrainian forces rather than Moscow's creation."

"During his time at the helm in Georgia, reformist Saakashvili, 47, became an arch-nemesis of the Russian leadership as he dragged his tiny ex-Soviet homeland out of Moscow's orbit and closer to the West after taking power in a popular revolution in 2003."

"Saakashvili -- who left power in 2013 -- ruffled a lot of feathers with his radical reforms and clampdown on corruption in Georgia and is a deeply divisive figure there."

"Despite Moscow's insistence it has no troops in Ukraine, evidence of Russian involvement is mounting.

In March, NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow told a conference in Latvia that "Russian leaders are less and less able to conceal the fact that Russian soldiers are fighting, and dying, in large numbers in eastern Ukraine."

This week, a Bloomberg report quoted U.S. lawmakers claiming that Russia was operating mobile crematoriums to secretly dispose of soldiers killed in eastern Ukraine.

And Washington think tank Atlantic Council this week issued a report citing"irrefutable evidence" that the conflict in eastern Ukraine is "a Kremlin-manufactured war -- fueled by Russian-made military equipment, fought by Russian soldiers, and supported by Mr. Putin."

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Articles devoid of evidence and a clip of a cartoon dog snickering.

I think you've hit your stride.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Signy
I see. Indeed, the troll STILL has nothing to say.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

Peter Hobson of The Moscow Times cites watchdogs as saying dairy producers routinely added starch, chalk and soap to their milk. One-fifth of caviar brands contained bacteria linked to E. coli. Bread bakers were discovered to use “fifth-grade” wheat, the sort usually intended for cattle. More than half the sliced salmon on shop shelves has been judged unsafe.

British parliament’s powerful intelligence committee is set to gather evidence on Russian meddling in Brexit

British parliament's powerful Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is set to hear evidence on the possibility that Russia interfered in the EU referendum, according to a letter seen by Business Insider.

Wuts going to happen to Russia over the next decade az the demand for oil evaporates?

Tesla just premiered an electric semi tractor truck that will make deezal trucks obsolete. Therez another new company, Nikola (hahaha!) getting in on that and an existing truck manufacturer will beat both uv them to market with an electric truck.

Then therez carz.

The new Tesla Roadster due out in 2019 beats EVERYTHING* that runz on fuel. Therez a Tesla imitator company running TV commercialz now. All the established manufacturerz are tranzitioning to electric.

*every production automobile,regardless uv prise. Top fuel dragsterz still hold the 1/4 mile recordz and the land speed record iz still held by jets.

I dont know about now, but the quickest production motorsycle last yir wuz electric. There are a bunch uv brandz competing, so I dont expect gas to be able to keep up any more.

On the other end uv the spectrum, there are the 'hoverboardz' and bunchez uv cheap toy scooterz. Theyve been out for yirz.

Putin iznt a complete idiot, so maybe he will let sumwun else win the next election so he can escape with hiz loot befor the entire mess collapsez.

But with hiz puppet Trump having sumthing to do with the shake up in Saudi Arabia, maybe he iz plotting to boost oil prisez agen - skweeez a few trillion rublez out uv us befor gasoline iz ded az the dinosaurz.

A newly revealed incident reported by a USAID officer who is based at the American embassy in Uzbekistan is raising suspicions Russia may have been involved and could have had a hand in bizarre attacks targeting U.S. diplomats in Cuba, according to American sources.

In September, the officer and his wife reported, according to one source familiar with the incident, what may have been at least one acoustic attack similar to those experienced by the diplomats in Havana.

6string - no, I think gas carz will be around forever, but not new wunz. I beleev I alredy hav a post in the Predictionz thred about gas not getting over 3$ per gallon due to electrics taking over that includez a forcast about the demize timeline.

I think the last production passenjer carz powered by gas or deizal will be around 2025, 2030 the latest.

There will be a thriving industry for converting older carz to electric. Its alredy a relatively eazy project for peepl like me and it gets eazier all the time.

"It's a ban on journalists who represent American media, all American media, visiting the State Duma," RIA quoted Savastyanova as saying. She represents the ruling United Russia party, which holds a majority of the seats in the chamber.

Navalny has been jailed three times this year on charges of repeatedly organizing public meetings and rallies in violation of existing laws. He says the Kremlin is deliberately trying to thwart his political ambitions.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday that the Meteor-M weather satellite, which was launched Nov. 28 from the new Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East, was lost because it was programmed with the bearings for takeoff from Baikonur, Russia's main launch pad that it leases in Kazakhstan.

The loss of the satellite and the corruption scandals around the construction of Vostochny have put pressure on Rogozin, who oversees the space industry.

NASA is planning the first interstellar mission, a trip to the Alpha Centauri system

Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are making preliminary plans for an interstellar mission, the agency's first. The team wants to send a probe to look for sings of life on the exoplanets surrounding Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth.

According to New Scientist, which first revealed the news, the proposed launch is set for 2069 -- a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

With a 44-year-long flight, the probe wouldn't reach its target until the next century.

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